Is variation a sign of decreolization?

Abstract The sociolinguistic situation in Guyana is one in which Creolese has intensive contact with its lexifier language, English, creating a continuum of varieties in which the acrolect varieties behave much like Standard English ( Rickford 1987a ). The creole continuum has been associated with decreolization following the pidgin-creole lifecycle ( Hall 1962 ). Decreolization is the theory of contact induced change wherein a creole becomes more similar to its lexifier language over time ( Bickerton 1980 ). Many researchers (e.g. Mayeux 2019 , Patrick 1999b ) call into question the existence of decreolization as separate from regular language change. This study will add evidence to these critiques and challenge the association of the creole continuum with decreolization and thus language change. Using a meta-analysis of the habitual marker doz and singular pronouns in Guyanese Creolese over a nearly twenty-year period, this paper will investigate whether the linguistic variation observed on the creole continuum shows evidence of loss of creole variants. The findings of this paper help to support earlier critiques of decreolization, and arguments against its usefulness in describing diachronic change observed in creole languages.